The Itch
by Zarius
Summary: Tom and Simeon have a little chat, where Tom answers an important question: Do cheaters EVER prosper?


**WIZARDS VS ALIENS**

**THE ITCH**

**Disclaimer: Wizards vs Aliens is trademarked by the BBC. All rights reserved. No profit will be made from this story.**

**Written by Zarius**

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><p>Tom had a rather irritating itch down his back. His initial reaction was'nt to remedy, but to remember.<p>

Remember the days where Lexi would scratch it for him during their many years spent on the Neverside.

Even the simplest physical problem were enough to trigger dormant echoes of a more tranquil time for him.

He pressed up against the wall of the hallway and rubbed up and down it trying to sort out the itch, and was caught working on it by his recently returned Grandfather Simeon.

"Some kind of military exercise routine?" he said

"It's an itch, nothing big" replied Tom, "Where's Gran?"

"Out with your father trying to buy some packets of soft drinks for me, we've ran fresh out"

"She just got that packet yesterday"

"Yes, but I knew the next day was the official shopping day, so I figured I'd get through the packet knowing she was going to get more the next day" Simon replied.

"You've only been back in the regular side of life for a week or so and you're already resorting to heavy drinking...even if it's not exactly alchaholic, that's never a good thing. You can rot your teeth"

"Nonsense, we're Wizards, and you're forgetting who raised your grandmother from the clutches of death"

"Yeah...about that, don't you think that was a bit of a...I don't know...a cheat?" Tom asked

"Death cheats us all Tom" replied Simeon, "You would rather those sisters of stone had taken her magic and life-force from you, from ME? I don't look at life through your eyes"

"MY Eyes?" Tom replied

"Oh I learn quickly Tom, I've browsed this "internet" of yours. It's such a nexus of negativity on there, your generation seem to expect life to offer you nothing but sin and scandal, where good people perish every day, usually at the hands of the most extreme kind of sub-human extremist, and you absorb all of that, you bring it home, and then you vent about it like life owes you something and yet never gives back to you, all to the tune of a million hits on Youtube or a trend on Twit...or is it Twitter...actually I like the first bit more. Whatever it is, it's a vile scene I've stumbled upon. At best I represent the kind of person who knows our kind of life bestows us with great power, and we can use that power to cheat the rules, those who enrich our livelihoods can be salvaged, not just for another minute, but also for a lifetime"

Tom slammed the edge of the wall with his right hand and looked into his grandfather with a surge of sincere and short temper.

"Cheaters never prosper Granddad, look at Katie, my god Katie, I told her everything, I showed her my world, OUR world, she rose to the occasion displaying a true strength, but in the end she still allowed the weight of whatever was to come to break her, I had to cheat her out of her reality, I had to make her live her life with misinformation all over again, I should have been stronger, I should have let her keep the knowledge, she would have rose above her fear, I know it, I saw first hand what she can do under pressure. Don't stand there and tell me what you did with Gran ought to be how we deal with whatever life hands us, it's a temporary fix, life can't be too fair nor too unfair, like a carefully arranged stack of cards, it must be carefully balanced"

"Scratched that itch for you I see" said Simeon, raising his cane up at Tom and gently bopping him on the head with it, before grinning from ear to ear, "And I was able to ignite a fire in a young spark, that's good for you Tom, see I am no fool, I can see when someone knows the measure of morality. I gave Ursula an extra lap in her twilight steps, but I would never ever apply that to someone in a younger state of being. We may play God, but we certainly aren't that"

"That's something my dad tried to tell me also" Tom said, "And he's right, but these last few months, from what I did on the Nekross ship, to what I did to Katie, I'm gambling Grandad, gambling with a lot of hearts and minds, and I'm unsure of where the line should be drawn"

Simon pouted around the room, taking in Tom's concerns, he rose his head upwards and put both hands on Tom's shoulders

"As I fought in the Neverside, I faced the exact same issues, it was easier there, but here, in the realm of the real and the ordinary, where few are prepared to take the risk, you can very easily fall prey to the vulnerable temptations, that's why you need someone less privileged than you and me

"Who will step up though? Katie couldn't, Benny's gone..."

"Look to your family, not just your friends" said Simeon

Micheal Clark suddenly walked in, a bag of groceries in hand, "Anyone up to watching the match on the telly tonight?"

"Yeah, I think I'll join you Dad...I need to talk to you loads"

"Anything the matter son?" asked Micheal.

"I just have a bit of a bad itch is all" said Tom.


End file.
